>> hello. i am llewellyn king. a few thoughts of my own -- you remember the old horror story, the great sword came nearer, and born near. it happens with things. in the newspaper business, we

talked about the day that electronics would takeover. for all long time, we have been talking about a shortage of oil and a shortage of food, but how could you believe it? food prices were remarkably low. we had huge stockpiles. well, this year, the great base for all right. this is the year where around the globe, change -- droughts in russia, south africa, south america -- floods in australia, much of this country, and we are into a world food shortage. prices are going up. some food is not available.

it is a slow process that every week and every month at the supermarket, the new reality is the parent. sometimes, the things we wait for, and wait for, and finally believes are not coming, into a riot. global warming, it may be, or it may not be, but weather is taking its toll on world food production. not a happy thought. i do have a very special program for you today with our celebration of black history month, talking to a great correspondent of the white house who has written a book about african-americans through history of the white house and the associations between presidents and african-american leaders, from the time of george washington to president obama.

i will be joined by an african- american broadcaster, my friend, george wilson. we will be right back. >> "white house chronicle is produced in collaboration with howard university television. now, your program host, national and syndicated columnist, llewellyn king, and co-host, linda gasparello. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> hello again. thank you for coming along. i would like to remind you this program is made possible by the arizona public service and its holding co., pinnacle west, and it's interesting chief executive. i promised you a special guest.

here he is. george wilson, as i mentioned. ken, you have written a book called "family of freedom -- presidents and african-americans in the white house." you have been the white house correspondent of u.s. news and world report. that magazine has changed more than you have in 29 years. we all have. you have been broadcasting on sirius xm radio for several years now, george, and before that for a long time. >> also american urban radio networks. about 30 years on capitol hill. >> do you know where the men's room is now? >> yes. >> how has the business changed? >> obviously, it has got a nice

lot young bear. i have to say there is not the same attention to detail. they want it fast. they do not want to do a lot of studying. >> tell me about the history of the white house and african- americans. what was the relationship, and how many african-americans did he speak to in one way or another? >> it is interesting. as a white house correspondent, i am looking to get behind the curtain. one way to do this is to look at their relations with african- americans from the beginning of our history. eight of our first 12 presidents had slaves in the white house. it was a sad commentary on how they did not live up to the ideals of the constitution, the declaration of independence, but nevertheless, this is part of

the history. you mentioned george washington. he had slaves at mount vernon, his home. we did not have the white house then. it is really, i think, people -- their hair will curl to hear the stories about our early presidents, but washington, laid in his life, turned against the institution of slavery but never did anything about it. he did not want to damage his own livelihood. he also did not want to alienate the south. we have seen this through our history -- 1 president after another does not want to alienate the south, conservatives, so they have not taken on civil rights or conservative -- racial issues as many people think they should have. >> was martha washington not

something of a racist? >> part of the book talks about the first ladies. she was never interested in equality. washington, when he was in philadelphia, he realized there was a law in pennsylvania that allowed slaves to go free if they were in pennsylvania for more than six months. realizing this, he shuttled his slaves back to his plantation in mount vernon, so they would not be free. he also had a slave who escaped, and he sent fugitive slave catchers to find her. they never did. when she went up to new hampshire, we now know. >> it is fascinating, the ticket when you talk about her -- when you talk about her, they could

have sent someone, but like you said, washington went himself. >> he sent his senior people, and a lot of it was at the urging of his wife. a lot of the early presidents fouled that the slaves 0 -- felt that the slaves owed them loyalty. they did not realize the desire for freedom. when a slave ran away, or if you low, -- eloped -- that was the word they used, the president became offended. they never understood of the desire for freedom. >> was the white house a coveted assignment? slavery was slavery, but inside the white house, was it different? >> from our history, african- americans working in the white house -- that was a highly-

prized job. throughout history, it was difficult for african americans to get good jobs. working in the white house was considered a step up. this was a valued thing. that is why so many members of the household staff passed the job on within the family. you have a number of people in the same family taking jobs. colin powell told me a story about how he was in the white house and he felt that so many of the african american staff were african-americans, he felt it looked like a plantation, or a pre-civil rights area operation. he tried to educate to change this, and they said "no, these are the best jobs we can have. do not do this. back off." >> hi 1 -- i the one in new york, who said it was not only

the only job, it was a good job. i said how can you do that? he said if he spent time, walking on solid ground it is no purpose -- no pain at all. it was a decent job compared with what was available. >> somewhat, the middle class. they were doing better. they were able to send their children to college. >> and, you got the occasional good tip that changed your life. >> the other thing i wanted to mention was one thing that struck me was how trusted the african-american staff has been through our history at the white house, even though the president for not treating people fairly. african-americans in the white house felt the -- they did

believe in the ideals. they were very loyal to the institution of the presidency. there are wonderful stories of some of the staff told. most of the more african- americans, but the stories are really not racial. household staff folks tend to be keen observers. there are wonderful stories. there was one where herbert hoover did not want to see the staff, and did not want the staff to see him. whenever they hood hit -- heard his footsteps, they would high in closets -- heidi in closets. when harry truman came into office, this tradition was still going on, and he said to one of the staffers, why are people peeping dead me behind the bushes? they explained.

>> this day, it happens not with african-americans, but to this date it happens in buckingham palace. when the queen approaches the room, people died under colleges -- dive under couches under the illusion she is alone. i grew up in africa. my family was very poor, but even so there were servants. it is a very different life with servants. you are never alone. you're always circumspect in what you say. it is a lot of stress. >> some of our presidents had experience, some did not. i tried to give an insight into the president's as well. president kennedy had experience with servants. when he first took office, the staff would go up to the

residence at 10:00 to turn the lights of, which they had done with president eisenhower, his predecessor. of course, eisenhower was an elderly man. one of the staffers observed jackie kennedy and what he calls skimpy in night clothes scattering from one bedroom to another, so he asked president kennedy, should i still come up here and turn the lights out. president kennedy said to go ahead and do what you have been doing, but jackie kennedy went at him, and said you are married to, you know what goes around, be discreet. >> i will take a moment for station identification. the audio for this program, you are listening to "white house chronicle" with myself,

llewellyn king, george wilson, and kenneth walsh. we are discussing his book, "family of freedom." it is a very important book about the relationship, physical and otherwise, with presidents and the african-american community going back to the time of slavery and the white house all the way off to the day of an african-american president. you have the opportunity to interview him. we have a picture of you talking to him. >> i did for the book. a lot of people ask what he is like in person. >> if you look very attentive. i would look very attentive if fiat were interviewing the president. >> it is interesting. -- if i were interviewing the president. >> it was interesting. there was no small talk.

a lot of people say this. he came into the room. we shook hands. he said i have been thoroughly briefed, fire away. that was the extent of the prelude to the interview. he had thought about a lot of these issues and was well- rehearsed. -- versed. >> is he or is he not a post- racial president? >> he realizes we are not in a post-racial country. it is still an important issue. but, he is trying to run what he thinks of as a race-neutral administration. he is asked often by african- american reporters if he has an african-american agenda, and his answer is, at this time, my overall agenda is the best thing to help african-americans.

it is sort of a sense that he is not trying to develop an agenda specifically for african- americans, and i think, politically, that is probably smart. >> when you look at presidents, it is often said that arthur like kitchen cabinets -- they are like kitchen cabinets. did any african-americans have influence? >> more recently, we have that african-americans in key positions like colin powell. before that, one example is a person named william slade. abraham lincoln trusted his judgment, and felt that he was in contact with everyday america. he actually got -- bounced each

lines off of william slade, and took him with him when he spoke, including at gettysburg. he wanted to see what his valet thought about it. that is remarkable. the person he trusted with the gettysburg address, it was is african-american the valet. >> this was a free man? >> at this point, absolutely, yes. he had been a slave. >> there is something upstairs, downstairs. would you like to tell us? >> the idea of what the president and his family are doing, and what the household staff was doing -- it goes to the point of this amazing trust that the presidents have had in their household staff, particularly the african american staff. they did not want to talk out-

of-school. franklin roosevelt's legs were paralyzed by polio. he was terribly afraid of being caught in a fire. he would run through practice -- they call them crawling and exercises -- where he would actually get on the floor, crawling, to see if he could make his way out of a room during a fire. they put shoots out of the residential floors so he could slide down incase of a fire. the only person he trusted to help them do these exercises was a valet named earl irvin mcduffy. that takes an amazing amount of trust. he did not want his family to see how vulnerable he was, but there was one person he entrusted, with what end of the his secret exercise, and that is the african american ballet --

valet irvin mcduffy. >> the current president often talks about standing on the shoulders of many people. do the current staff talk about a shoulders they are standing on? >> a lot of them do. people that have been with obama for a long time, valerie jarrett, his close friend, talks about this. with barack obama, of course, and he talks about this a lot, the idea that he could not have become president without the advances made in the past by the civil rights movement and so on. a lot of household staff, the african-american staff, felt an emotional high just when he was collected, serving an african- american president, because they felt it would never happen in their lifetime. there was a poignant moment when

all of these african american people on the staff felt they never would see this, and some of them postpone retirement just so they could work for the first african-american president. i found it a very moving moment. >> george? >> this is absolutely fascinating. what prompted you to do this book? was it something about your interaction with the staff? >> i have been covering politics for almost three decades, and the white house, for a very long time. the first african-american president raises the question of what role african-americans have played in the white house in the past. there was a historical question i thought should be addressed. also, the notion of trying to understand our presidents better, and using this history of the inter-client relationships -- intertwined

relationships as an insight of our country moving through these wrenching changes -- our capacity for tolerance, for change -- i think you can see that. african-americans have always been in trouble in the running the white house, right from the beginning. i thought that story should be told. >> what about johnson? a very big figure. a man prepared to take on the south, and lost the south for the democratic party. what about johnson? >> he was from texas. he came from a segregated experience early in his life. he was actually moved by people around him. there was a case where marcus,

from texas, came up from washington, and could not stop at hotels, restaurants, and so on. when he got to the white house, as you said, when he signed the civil rights act, he said i just cost the democratic party the south. that is really what happened. there are really two landmark figures in the book as far as president's goal who have made breakthroughs -- abraham lincoln, and lyndon johnson. it is interesting. he was not known as a pioneer in civil rights throughout his career, but after president kennedy died, in an effort to continue that legacy, he pushed far beyond what kennedy did on civil rights. even at the expense of the

democratic party in the south, he did think it was the right thing to do, and he had a lot of criticism over vietnam and other things, but on civil rights, he is a landmark figure. >> going back to the influence question, i think about the four little girls in alabama, the civil rights workers that were slain, i'm just wondering, would the president having these relationships with the people that worked with them, if he was somehow influenced seen the reaction of the people who worked for him? >> that is interesting. one case of this came with bill clinton. when he was a teenager in little rock -- little rock, ark., that is when they had that little rock nine. that stayed with him for the rest of his life. he felt he could not believe the a very and the white community,

and the threats that were made -- the angry and the white community, the threats that were made. he had members of the integrated school in the white house and at the ceremony, and became good friends of a couple of them. his experience with that very serious moment in his younger life. through his administration. he became very comfortable in african-american communities, particularly in the churches. he understood the importance of the african-american church. a lot of people talk about attending a church service with president clinton, and he knew all the words. he could sing the whole thing, and he would boomed out the spiritual. it is interesting how this whole racial history really effected so many of our presidents. >> did any of these presidents

have social friends that were african americans? >> more recently. bill clinton had vernon jordan, was an influential person in washington. president bush, the son, people might not realize, his spiritual advisor was a reverend from texas, and he talked to him regularly. if you go back to theodore roosevelt, there was a case where he tried to get advice from the booker t. washington, and he invited him to the white house for a dinner. it caused such a foss, you cringe at what was said about this in the south, about how terrible this was in the minds of the racist in the south but the president would have an african-american over for a

social dinner. from then on, he never had an african-american over for social occasions, but did have booker t. washington over for a device, but only in a business setting. >> i would just like to remind everyone that the book is "family of freedom, presidents and african-americans in the white house" by kenneth walsh. george wilson, you get the last question. >> we have talked about everything except the culinary side. were there any black chefs that stuck out? >> there was a shaft that george washington said hu -- shaft that george washington had. a lot of the early presidents like french cooking. there was a pattern that once they were trained, a lot of

them escaped, and they did not come back. jefferson had the same thing happen. he had them trained, brought some of them to france, and this person also left. he bought his freedom. jarvis and asked would you come back and work for me, and he said it now -- jefferson? would you come back and work for me, and he said no. this was an important vehicle. >> kenneth walsh, i am so glad you did this book. you worked brilliantly at it. we would like to thank you for watching, and remind you this program has been possible by arizona public service, and its holding company, panicle west. we'll be back in a week. until then, visit us on the web

at whchronicle.com. cheers. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle" a

weekly analysis of the news with a sense of humor featuring llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. to view the program online,